Please register to access this content.
To continue viewing the content you love, please sign in or create a new account
Dismiss
This content is for our paying subscribers only
Update

Suicide car bomb targeting convoy in Somali capital kills at least 8

Al Shabaab extremist group claims responsibility



A police officer keeps watch as Red Crescent workers remove the body of a victim at the scene of a suicide car bomb explosion near the president's residence, in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 25, 2021.
Image Credit: Reuters

MOGADISHU: A suicide car bomb killed at least eigt people in the Somali capital on Saturday at a street junction near the president's palace, police said, and Al Qaida-linked Al Shabaab said it was behind the attack which targeted a convoy going into the palace.

Police spokesperson Abdifatah Aden Hassan told reporters at the scene of the blast the casualties could be higher, since some of the dead and wounded had been taken away by their relatives.

"Al Shabaab is behind the blast. They killed eight people including a soldier and a mother and two children. Al Shabaab massacres civilians," he said.

Mohammed Ibrahim Moalimuu, the government spokesperson, said among those killed was Hibaq Abukar, an advisor of women and human rights affairs in Prime Minister Mohammed Hussain Roble's office.

"She was one of the pillars of PM's office (for) women affairs," he said on his Facebook account.

Advertisement

It was not immediately clear if Abukar was in the convoy or if she just happened to be close by when the blast happened.

Al Shabaab confirmed it was behind the attack. The group, which wants to overthrow the government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law, frequently carries out such bombings.

"A Mujahid driving a suicide car bomb targeted a convoy of cars going into the (presidential) palace," Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab military operation spokesperson, told Reuters by phone.

A Reuters witness at the scene of the attack reported seeing seven cars and three rickshaws destroyed by the blast, and the whole junction covered in blood.

Advertisement